i think on the diplomatic front we have hid behind russia and on the military front we have been fairly relevant to the flow of this conflict on the ground. and we sort of have had this idea of a splendid distance from syria but are not able to maintain that indefinitely. >> suarez: but does that narrow your choices when you decide what you is to do, andrew, to fight that irrelevance as vali called it. >> the problem is when you get involved in a game late, you're cornered. and you also have to intervene in ways you might not have wanted to do from the beginning. so in the case of ot bama administration very reticent to get involved with armed groups, but now we are looking at something very real. real threat of the use of chemical weapons. the possibility of a failed state in a divided state in syria. and also a haven for terrorists and the propensity for all of that to spill over its borders into the vital allies like israel, like turkey, iraq, jordan and so on and also into lebanon grows every day with no end in sight. >> suarez: but you both painted this dire picture, and in some wa